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RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug, and giving them after surgery, may kill any remaining tumor cells following surgery. It is not yet known whether combination chemotherapy is more effective than observation in treating relapsed nonmetastatic breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy with that of observation in treating women who have undergone surgery for relapsed nonmetastatic breast cancer.

Compare the efficacy of adjuvant cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and fluorouracil vs observation, in terms of disease-free 5-year survival, in women who have undergone resection for relapsed nonmetastatic breast cancer after initial conservative surgery.

Compare the overall survival of women treated with these regimens.

Determine the tolerance of these women to the chemotherapy regimen.

Correlate prognostic factors of survival with efficacy of the chemotherapy regimen in these women.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to menopausal status and participating center. Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms. Study begins within 42 days after resection of recurrent disease.

Arm I: Patients receive fluorouracil IV over 1 hour, epirubicin IV over 1 hour, and cyclophosphamide IV over 1 hour on day 1. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients then receive docetaxel IV over 1 hour on day 1. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for 3 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Arm II: Patients are examined on days 1 and 63.

Patients who are hormone receptor positive also receive one of the following hormonal therapy regimens, depending on menopausal status:

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